User Reviews

Strengths: 1) Base is stable and both legs adjustable. 2) Blackburn has a lifetime warranty, with free shipping!

Weaknesses: 1) Slight vibration begins at six minutes then gradually ends 7 minutes later. Resistance has two levels: a) easy for first six minutes, b) regular resistance after six minutes.

Bottom Line:

The CycleOps Fluid 2 and Blackburn Tech Fluid are both very quiet (the CycleOps a bit more quiet, perhaps). However, the Tech Fluid holds the bike more securely. In contrast, the CycleOps allows the bike wheel to move side-to-side, increasing tire wear. The Tech Fluid's feet are both individually adjustable. The CycleOps are not.

But in performance, The CycleOps wins hands down. The roller runs smoothly all the time. In contrast, the Tech Fluid's resistance and smoothness changes as it warms up. For the first six minutes, the resistance is low, and I use the highest gear, but it runs smoothly, similar to the Cycleops. Then suddenly the resistance increases and the vibration starts. It's not as bad as other reviewers have said, it's just a little rough, and the trainer remains quiet. I shift down three gears and continue riding. Then, between six and nine minutes later, the vibration stops and the ride becomes smooth again. The resistance stays the same and there are no changes for the rest of the time you ride, unless you stop and the unit cools down. The roller unit gets very hot to the touch, unlike the CycleOps, which only gets slightly warm. It's a great design with a built-in fan/flywheel to cool it off. With the CycleOps, the resistance stays the same throughout the ride.

Bottom line: I like the stability (and lower price) of the Blackburn, but I prefer the smoothness of the Cycleops. I wish someone could combine the base of the Tech Fluid with the resistance unit of the CycleOps.

Note: The Blackburn Trainer is covered by a lifetime warranty. My Tech Fluid was a replacement for an older fluid trainer whose bearings broke down. Blackburn (a Bell Sport subsidiary) didn't even ask for a receipt - they just sent me a whole new unit at no cost!

Strengths: Simple to set up and use. Wide stance, very stable. Solid construction with good components. Offers excellent resistance making for a great leg workout.

Weaknesses: Vibrates a little between 5 and 10 minutes as it warms up.

Bottom Line:

Bought this trainer to replace my aged wind trainer. After reading some info about the types of trainers available, I decided that fluid was the way to go. The local shop had this one and I was able to hook my bike to it and try it out...

QUIET! Compared to my windy, this thing is silent. Also, it actually offers resistance! I had to shift into a lower gear after about 5 minutes and ended up turning 53/21 for the rest of my 1 hour workout. That was it. I took it home!

One thing I noticed was the vibration that starts in at about 5 minutes. I asked about that and the tech mentioned that I would ride through it in a couple of minutes. Sure enough, at about 8 minutes it smoothed out to nothing and stayed that way until I was through.

I have tried a couple of fluid trainers at the shop and this one seems to be one of the best values.

Strengths: Very stable and smooth, minimal vibration. Strong power curve.

Weaknesses: None yet other than the unit can get a little hot on longer,faster rides- don't touch it and watch the pets.

Bottom Line:

Bought this as my first trainer and love it. Did a lot of research and this one seemed the best bang for the dollar. Quiet and smooth but taked a few minutes to warm up. Power curve is intense, not for casual biker. I normally can push a steady 25mph on road for 2 hrs, could only push 18 mph for 1:45 on BB Tech Fluid, but I love that about it. If you are serious about the bike, this is your trainer. Incedibly stable and smooth, easy use, worth every penny!

Strengths: Trainer stability. Brief fluid warm up time. Excellent resistance variation over speeds. Easy to set up bike into the mounts.

Weaknesses: Not as pretty to look at as say a CycleOps trainer (this would be the Humvee where the CycleOps would be the H2).

Bottom Line:

I received this trainer as a replacement to my Blackburn Trakstand Ultra from being warrantied. Thankfully, Bell Sports no longer makes that Trakstand model and thankfully they sent a much nicer replacement.

The Tech Fluid is a great trainer thus far. Though nice weather is coming back, I typically don't have the opportunity to get outside and bike after work just yet. Need more evening sunlight. So far, I've already put four solid rides on this trainer and am quite pleased.

Just like all fluid trainers, it has to warm up. Some fluid trainers will warm up smoothly with no fluctuation in resistance, some less smoothly. The Tech Fluid will very slightly vibrate while it warms up. Very slightly, like riding over a brick-paved road. After 5 to 7 minutes, though, it's gone. So, you can think of it as, just about as you're done warming up your legs for some exercise, so, too, has the trainer also finished warming up.

The resistance curve on the Tech Fluid is excellent. I tend to do rides no more than an hour on the trainer and the amount of resistance it generates is strong enough to keep me in the little chain ring hovering around the 16 to 13t sprockets. I was hoping that would be the case because it's always annoying to ride a trainer which requires you to switch up & down the little and big chainrings in order to find the right gear ratios to use.

If you do throw it up to the big chainring, say an effort at a 53x19, you're in for some serious hurt. The resistance nicely ramps up exponentially like a true ride. But will back off smoothly as well (unlike the Trakstand Ultra which, on many occasions, could actually lock up after efforts like that).

Lastly I must point out that the trainer itself, the hardware namely, is of top quality. It's incredibly heavy and has a wide stance making it almost impossible to rock back and forth even during major efforts. Not everyone likes that much stability from a trainer, but I appreciate it.

The Tech Fluid is really a quality product. Glad Blackburn has changed things from the Trakstand. Though, if something goes wrong with this trainer, I'll come back and add a PS to my review to point it out. Lifetime warranties are a plus, as well.

Strengths: It looks nice and like other BB trainers you don't need a riser block.

Weaknesses: It's a Black Burn and it's cheaper for a reason.

Bottom Line:

This unit was sent to me from Black Burn as a replacement for my Trackstand Ultra.

The Ultra is actually a nicer built trainer. BB cut corners in the construction on the Tech Fluid compared to the Ultra.

Got the bike on. Started out. Holy sh!t! This thing is loud. Sounds like a fleet of hairdryers but a much higher annoying pitch.

Resistance feels good so I don't know if it's supposed to be so loud. But, apparently it's not. At 8 minutes in the unit stated vibrating enough to shake the house, it got louder, the resistance went bonkers. So, out of the box it's junk. Does BB have anything remotely resembling QC? Apparently not.

I'll be skipping anything BB in the future. Luckily the vendor will be giving me my money back on the two failed BB trainers.